Just wondering as red is supposed to not kill the night vision so make a nice red light and what would it be like to ride with .

I did a red back light with a few XP-G's (I think) I didn't over power them as they were on the back. I've now gone with a smaller light as the one I made was a PITA as it was mounted under the seat and one of them stopped working... Good idea at the time. If you wanted the LED's to have a play with I gladly send them up..

Just wondering as red is supposed to not kill the night vision so make a nice red light and what would it be like to ride with .

Time for some reading/research

Bright red light will take out your night vision just as easily as bright white...

I know it goes totally against the troutie inspired more is better, grunt grunt... But if you want to preserve night vision, there's nothing wrong with white light - just run it at much less than the standard "burn your rabbits at 100 paces setting"

I have attempted similar things with walking lights. The problem was that reading maps and seeing everything on the ground was much harder. A dim white light seemed to work better (as George suggested).

So, in darkrooms and observatories where you need to be able to see without additional light, and the task is close at hand, red lights allow your pupils to stay dilated, allowing more light into the eye. However, in the case of motion and the need to see clearly in the periphery, smaller pupils will allow you to see better.

It relates to how well you can see under high pressure sodium (HPS) yellow streetlights versus metal halide (MH) blue/white street lights. Typically, under MH, you have better vision since your pupils will be smaller and will filter out aberrant light rays. This ignores color rendition and spectral distribution, a major element of acuity, but the idea that a smaller aperture is better applies.

If you wear glasses, you can test this by removing them and rolling your index finger against the base of your thumb, making a small pinhole in the fold of your knuckle. Hold this up to your eye and see if things are more clear when looking through this hole.

Basically, the eye is designed to see motion in the periphery, and a larger pupil will let in more random light waves, making it harder to see. Smaller pupils will help with night riding as your acuity will be higher, so light with more blue and blue-green (white is all colors) should be better.

Opthamologists feel free to chime in and correct this, but from a lighting standpoint this is pretty much it.